Owing to the fact that we live above 11,000 feet in the Rocky Mountains, this is not the first early season snow we've had. Several times now we have awoken early morning to see Mount Silverheels in the distance covered in a light dusting of snow all the way down to treeline. We've also hiked up on Pennsylvania Mountain in mixed weather conditions. Occasionally, there has even been snow--or graupel--falling at the house, but each time it's stopped and started melting shortly thereafter.
Not today, however. We awoke to at least 1/4 inch of actual fluffy snow accumulation on the ground and on our cars. First thing in the morning it seemed like our whole world of Breckenridge (and one Alma) friends were online and Facebooking about "3 inches and still falling" and even snow "blowing sideways." Gregg and I had to venture into town anyway to check the mail, so we started over Hoosier Pass around 10:15 AM to find that our friends were not exaggerating. The visibility was bad; even Gregg was hunched up on the steering wheel squinting out the window, and he's usually a hero when it comes to snow-driving. Road conditions consisted of a slick mixture of wet and dry snow, packed down in spots and deep in others--which can only mean carnage. On the way up we saw one mini-SUV fully hanging off the road over a 45-degree embankment, and on the way down we saw an officer (they were stationed on both sides of the pass) helping push a car to the side of the road that couldn't quite make it to the top of the hill. Hello early winter.
The sun came out eventually in Breck. We checked the mail, paid an extended visit to The Crown coffee shop, and made our way back over the pass with clear weather and clean roads. The light was amazing through the autumn-colored leaves of aspens and willow and the backdrop of pure snow-covered peaks. We even saw four deer out and about, including a couple fawns.
When I say "happy snow," I am talking about the light, fluffy, big snowflakes falling down from the sky in a vertical path because the wind is calm--and the heavier the snow, the better. Daydreams of snowboarding deep in the deepest forest and stopping to hear absolutely nothing (except maybe the snowflakes) enter my head and captivate me for a moment; it's the kind of stillness that quiets the mind; the kind that keeps me bumming around mountain towns even thought I'm supposed to be an adult already. So it is "happy snow" that's falling outside my window again right now, as it has been doing on and off all day.
In regards to what the snow has to do with wild edible plants (which is one of the ways I categorized this blog entry), I just want to say that I probably should have applied the lesson I learned from Cattail Bob Seebeck a little sooner--harvest the wild greens before the first frost! For, although we have had a few night freezes already this month, today definitely counts as the first full-on, all-night-and-all-day snow event. Most likely the remaining wild greens I had planned on harvesting--the tansy and tumble mustards, the pennycress and peppergrass--have felt winter's sting today. I don't dare to hope they are still palatable.
This whole snow thing give me pause to think about my wild edible plants blog too. I have made it my almost-daily exercise over the last month or so to blog about my botanical and culinary adventures with edible wild plants. And, although I have quite a few more entries planned and researched on that topic, I am growing painfully aware that as the change in seasons become more pronounced, the day will soon come when I am going to have to find something else to blab on and on about to my now 278 "unique viewers" (for the month of September, so far) out there on the interwebs.
Snowboarding, maybe?
Ya...but where's the gold???:)
Luv it all.
Envy you as I am sitting in a windowless office... Outside we have the beginnings of the Santa Ana's and potential 90+ degress with wicked waves...